


Look Around

by carolion



Category: American Idol RPF
Genre: Coming of Age, Growing Up, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-31
Updated: 2011-12-31
Packaged: 2017-10-28 13:41:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,103
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/308447
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/carolion/pseuds/carolion
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes Adam Cook, the boy who lives down the street from them, comes over to help babysit.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Look Around

Sometimes Adam Cook, the boy who lives down the street from them, comes over to help babysit. He’s a senior in high school and really nice, not too bossy like some of the babysitters they’ve had before, but he doesn’t ignore them either, which is nice. David and Claudia don’t really _need_ a babysitter (and Daniel would say he doesn’t _either_ , but Daniel is only six and still needs help like, tying his shoes, so, yeah) but Jazzy’s only four and Amber is _one_ , and, well, Adam is nice. He’s really good with Daniel, even when he’s being obnoxious, or when he wants to run around outside like a crazy person. He tells David it’s because he has two little brothers of his own.

David actually knows this already. He and Andrew Cook are the same age and go to the same school – they’re in different classes though, but he’s seen Adam pick Andrew up before, along with their other brother, David. (When the Archuletas had first met with Adam to see if he’d be a good babysitter for their family, that was the first thing he’d said to him: “You’re David? I have a brother named David. I doubt he’s as cool as you are though,” and then Adam had ruffled his hair, but David totally didn’t care.) The _other_ David is twelve, and in Little League; David sometimes sees him with cleats or a bat slung over his shoulder, looking bored with a baseball cap pushed up on his head. One time Adam couldn’t babysit them because he had to go to one of his brother’s baseball games, and they’d been stuck with Mrs. Harrison, who was nice, but smelly and really only paid attention to Amber, who was still cute and too little to talk back.

They use Adam a lot as a babysitter, actually, because his mom and dad are gone a lot for work, and like, their family isn’t always available, and the Cooks live like, right down the street. It doesn’t bother David, well, not _too_ much. Claudia mostly just reads books the whole time, unless they need her help, and David doesn’t mind playing with Jazzy and Daniel if Amber is being fussy or needs changing or something. One time though, Jazzy and Amber were both _really_ sick with some kind of flu, and Claudia wasn’t feeling well either. Daniel and David were fine – Daniel was just as restless and active as always, but Adam couldn’t juggle a wailing Amber and a sniffling, feverish Jazzy, _and_ check on Claudia, making her drink water and take preventative medication.

“I just need you to come over and get him worn out, okay?” Adam says impatiently into the phone, digging through the cabinets for that sticky pink medicine that his mother always gave him when he had a sore throat. “I don’t care Dave, just toss a ball around in the background. Seriously, it’s not a big deal.” There’s a pause, and Adam sighs. “I’ll give you some of what I get paid. What? No I don’t – just get over here.”

It’s the first time David actually _meets_ Adam’s brother, twelve year old David Cook who’s a little skinny and has weirdly short hair. He looks a little anxious when David opens the door to him. His face quickly schools into one of bored nonchalance, but David can still see the way the older boy tilts his body, looking for Adam.

“Hey. Is – my brother asked me to come by. Is it cool if I come in?” The middle Cook brother has his hands shoved into his pockets so hard that his pants are actually sagging a little. David nods, too shy to really say anything.

“Um. Daniel, he’s in the backyard. I think?” He offers timidly, and the other boy just nods, and steps past David.

“Cool,” he says, distracted, and tugs at the backpack he was carrying, upzipping it and drawing out a baseball before heading to the backyard. David can hear him shout to Daniel, who yells something back. He turns away and mechanically pulls out the phonebook to order take out; there’s no way Adam is going to be able to make them dinner.

So, yeah, that’s the first time he meets David Cook.

\--

The fourth grade project is kind of like, a _big deal_. Like, sort of a lot of their grade? And he really wants to do well, because his quizzes haven’t been that great. He does well on the homework, but for some reason he can’t seem to focus when it comes time to study, and he really needs to do this _well_. It just – okay, it’s not nice or anything but he wishes he’d gotten different partner.

Oh that’s totally mean.

It’s just – okay, Andrew isn’t _really_ a jerk, but he totally doesn’t like David and David doesn’t know _why_. He thinks maybe it has something to do with Adam always babysitting for them, but those have backed off a lot since their mom decided to try the whole ‘working from home’ thing. It’s just really _hard_ when Andrew just sort of glares at him and mumbles stuff under his breath. And when David tries to suggest how and when to start their project, he just says ‘Whatever,’ like it doesn’t even _matter_.

It’s so frustrating, and it’s making David totally anxious. Like, how is he supposed to do his work when his partner won’t even _talk_ to him? Finally, in desperation, he suggests working on the project at one of their houses. Andrew looks at him, his lips pressed into a straight line, and pushes his glasses up his nose. (David can tell he kind of hates them, but, uh, he’s not going to point that _out_ or anything.)

“Fine,” Andrew says, and sprawls in his seat. “Your house or mine?”

“Maybe,” David says, and licks his lips, “maybe your house? Mine is kind of, um, busy? And loud? Amber is, uh, learning to talk and she kind of never stops now.” He laughs a little nervously, and sees Andrew smile briefly in return. Relief spreads through his body.

“Sure, whatever. Just come over after school.”

It’s pretty convenient that they live down the street from each other (and, _oh_ , maybe that’s why Mrs. Rayburn assigned them to each other?) so David just grabs his stuff and walks over after school, knocking timidly on the door and twisting his leftover backpack strap in his hand.

“Andrew! Get the door!” he hears, and flinches.

“You get it!”

“It’s _your_ little friend!”

“He’s _not_ my friend,” he hears Andrew shout and, oh, that kind of, um. He knows, he _knows_ he and Andrew aren’t friends but it still really, really hurts. Which is – it feels awful.

The door is yanked open, and David Cook stands in front of him. He frowns immediately at the look on David’s face, like he wants to ask what’s wrong, but doesn’t.

“Hey, Archuleta.” His lips quirk up in a smile. “Sorry about that, Andrew gets fussy when you try to pry him away from his video games.”

David mumbles a non-response and steps into the house, feeling out of place and awkward, and just – he wants to turn around and leave, like, immediately. Andrew doesn’t even _want_ him here. It would just be easier to do the project by himself. But then David Cook’s hand touches his shoulder, and he flinches, looking up in surprise.

“You okay? This is for that pioneer project, right? What teacher do you have?” he asks, like David isn’t some dorky fourth grader, but an actual person. He nods shyly and tells the other David a little about the project.

“Yeah I had to do that one too. Hey, Andrew! Get your butt in here!” David flinches, again, because, wow, they so do not yell in their household. (Sometimes Daniel is _loud_ , but not like, he’s just a loud kid, he likes making noise.)

Andrew comes sulking in, frowning. “What?” he snaps, and his brother rolls his eyes.

“Archuleta is here,” he says, kind of, um, pointing out the obvious David thinks to himself, “and seriously, you’re going to look like such an idiot if you get in front of the class and _he’s_ done all the work.” Andrew has this look on his face like he wouldn’t mind that option, but trudges over and slumps at the table anyway.

David is kind of apprehensive to start, now. Andrew is clearly in a mood and he’s not really, um, equipped to deal with that. The older David can either sense his hesitation, or maybe he can see the misery scrawled on his face, because he just makes a groaning noise and sits down at the table too.

“Listen, I’ll help you. I did this project a few years ago so – whatever. Can we get started?”

And that’s how David Archuleta gets to know David Cook.

(Somewhere between researching what pioneer life was like and what role Native American tribes had on the great trek West, the older boy says “Listen, you can just call me Cook. The whole ‘David, David’ thing is sort of – weird, and I’m used to being called by my last name. All the guys on the team (and he means baseball team, David knows, he saw the baseball mitt laying in the den) call me that,” and David smiles shyly and says okay.)

(They totally get an ‘A’ on the report, too, and Andrew even smiles at him, even though they don’t really talk for the rest of the school year, it’s okay because every time Cook comes by to pick up his little brother he smiles and waves and David feels a little bit better about himself.)

\--

Ever since Cook found out he could sing, he’s been bugging David to do an actual show not just, like, talent shows. It was weird at first, and David had been freaked out because Cook had like, _no_ reason to hang around him. He was older, and cooler, and they didn’t even like the same things, but apparently Cook is mad about music and, well, they are neighbors, and their moms are friends, and David’s mom made a big deal over him singing a solo in church and invited a bunch of people, and the Cooks actually _came_. David couldn’t stop staring at them all dressed in nice clothing, shuffling into the pews as he sat nervously in the front of everyone. Cook was in a _suit_. It was – weird. But, then he sang, and like, he tried not to look at anyone so it didn’t distract him or anything, he it was _okay_ \- everyone looked really, um, happy when he was done so. But afterwards, when everyone was being really nice and telling him how great he had done, Cook kind of had this funny look on his face, and he’d punched David lightly on the arm.

“I had no idea you could sing like that, man. That’s awesome. You should totally sing more often.” And, well, ever since then Cook had been encouraging him to perform more which David wasn’t so sure about.

Cook (kind of) plays the guitar, which is really really cool, even though David only heard him play that one time at the Christmas party. (David could see how hard he was concentrating, watched as every finger moved deliberately.) (They made Cook play ‘Happy Birthday’ as well as Christmas carols, because of David’s birthday and because of Cook’s birthday too. It was weird but fun and Cook smiled a lot at him, really bright and happy, and it seemed okay.) But, so, Cook plays the guitar and starts dragging it over to the Archuleta household, insisting that David sing as he plays. David never lets him in though, either making an excuse about too much homework (which, okay, sometimes isn’t totally true, but school should always come first!) or even outright _lying_ , and David knows he shouldn’t, but Cook makes him nervous. (Cook is like, _fourteen_ , and also awesome, and his clothes aren’t too big or super lame or anything, and David is a whole three grades younger, and he just always worries that it’s going to turn out like the movies, like Cook’s friendliness is all one big joke.) His throat gets tight and his palms feel sweaty and it’s weird, it’s really weird, but he can’t sing like that, so he just never does.

He waits for Cook to get tired of trying, but he never seems to.

\--

David knows his friendship with Cook is kind of weird, but he’s _so_ glad that they _are_ friends, because not only is Cook a great guy and like, super fun and funny and _nice_ , but like, the first day of high school is way less scary knowing that Cook will be there to help him if he gets lost or does something dumb or humiliating. He feels _tiny_ \-- that growth spurt is _never_ going to happen – and he feels like everyone is staring at him even though that’s probably not the case. It’s confusing, running all over campus to get from one class to other, and he doesn’t even see Cook until he practically runs him down in the hallway.

“Hey Archuleta, easy there.” David looks up into Cook’s smiling face. His hair is kind of long and messy now, and he wears these weird pants with like, chains on them, but his smile is the same, goofy and a little lopsided. “How’s the first day going?”

“Oops, sorry. Um, it’s going okay? I just, everything is so _far_. And big? And there are so many people I don’t know,” David says in a rush, winded from his brisk jog through the plaza.

Cook chuckles and ruffles his hair. “The only person you need to know is me, alright? I’ll see you later Archuleta,” he says, and waves as he walks off.

David legs it to biology, slipping into the classroom just before the bell goes off.

\--

David gets called cute a lot. He _so_ doesn’t get why, but he’s heard it his whole life. From friends to family to neighbors, even random strangers, it’s always the same thing: “Aww, you’re so cute!” David doesn’t _mind_ , not really, but it’s _embarrassing_. Only now it’s like ten times worse because all the girls at _school_ keep calling him cute, and it’s like, less ‘awww’ and more giggly and blinky. It makes him uncomfortable. And there’s this one guy, he’s in David’s art class? He’s sort of chubby and wears a lot of black sweatshirts, and he has a piercing in one ear – he stares. Like, a lot. David doesn’t know him all that well, but he’s a year older and doesn’t seem to have a lot of friends, so David tries to smile and wave at him. He just stares, though one time he kind of smiled back, and David is just. He doesn’t know how to feel about it.

(“Faggot,” a boy called Greg mumbles under his breath to his friends, and David actually has to go home and look it up to see what it means, and then blushes bright red and slams the laptop closed. It’s not – the Church says – but David doesn’t really know, and one time he walked in on Cook and another boy, and they had a long talk about it after, and it’s just. So confusing. He doesn’t want to be fourteen any more, he wants to be nine and worried about his fourth grade project instead of how many girls are going to make him blush this week, or what the boy in art class really wants from him.)

Cook is pulling hard on his friend Trevor’s hoodie when David walks up timidly, and he has to bite his tongue to keep from saying _”Don’t do that, you’ll stretch it!”_ He’s really, really lame. But Cook lets go and Trevor spins away, cursing and yanking on his clothing to get it straightened out.

“Hey Arch,” Cook greets casually, “what’s up?”

(Trevor had totally laughed the first time Cook had introduced David to him, for a couple reasons. He hadn’t believed they were really friends, firstly, and then secondly the fact that they were both called David was really funny to him, and thirdly because David had blushed and mumbled something about music and neighbors and stubborn boys named Cook. Trevor is nice though, even though his bleached hair looks pretty, um, bad.)

“Are you busy?” David asks, and Cook says _no, never too busy for you Archuleta_ , and sits down. David tells him all about the girls who won’t stop giggling, and how embarrassing it is to be told how cute he is (“You are pretty cute Arch, let’s be honest here,” and Cook laughs when David scowls and hits him on the shoulder) and about the boy in art class.

“I know I shouldn’t care,” David says, feeling anxious, “but it’s – kind of weirding me out. I just don’t know what to do. Talk to him? I don’t know. I don’t know what to do.” He sets his chin on hands and stares at the ground, feeling silly and young and unimportant. Cook just makes a soft, thoughtful noise.

“Well, everything you’ve heard about him is just rumor, right? And he’s probably harmless. But it’s making you feel weird just ignore him. And the art rotation will switch and you’ll be with a different group. It’ll be okay, and don’t give me that face.” Cook taps David’s nose lightly, laughing at his pouty expression. “You don’t have to be Saint Archuleta to everyone,” he continues in a soft voice, “it’s okay to just be normal.”

David sighs, but decides Cook is probably right. Just – ignore him. Right. Easy.

(It only takes a week and the boy stops staring. What David doesn’t know is that Cook hung around school one Thursday by the back alley and caught Devin by the collar to let him know that the creepy staring thing was so not cool. But. David doesn’t really need to know that.)

\--

So Cook has a band. And they’re really good! …Sort of. Technically he had the band in junior and senior year, but they were pretty bad then, and David didn’t like them much even though he always lied and said they sounded great when Cook would let him sit in on practices. Cook’s voice is cool, all gravelly and warm and _perfect_ , but David didn’t, um, it just wasn’t his kind of music. But they _have_ improved since high school, and David actually enjoys listening to them. Um, some times. They’re still really _loud_ , and it’s hard to sing along, but some of the songs are nice. (Cook always, _always_ laughs when he can tell David doesn’t like one of the songs, and teases him about being such a critic, which of course makes David overcompensate and heap on the praise.)

David isn’t really allowed into most of the shows that Axium plays, because he’s only sixteen, but Cook usually sneaks him in. David feels awful and guilty about it, but it’s worth it to see Cook on a stage in front of a crowd (no matter how small it may be), singing and playing guitar and smiling and laughing like he’s made for this lifestyle. It makes David happy to see him so happy, and he remembers seeing Cook play guitar for the first time, plucking out shaky Christmas carols and strumming Happy Birthday. It makes his chest hot and tight, but in a good way, and he curls his fingers into fists as Cook leans back and bears his throat to the ceiling, sweat trickling down his face and over his Adam’s apple and David suddenly feels the hot feeling in chest swoop to his stomach and makes him overbalance and almost fall over.

Weird.

After the show Bobby like, grabs David and hugs him tight (and he’s known Bobby for a while, but David still doesn’t like being touched like, um, ever) because he’s high off of that stage adrenaline, and David flails and tries not to yank back super fast because that would be rude. It’s gross because Bobby is really sweating from performing too and, just, it’s a bad situation all around. But then Cook shoves his band member away and laughs (but sort of meanly, and his face is tight and unhappy) and says “Stop molesting the underage kid, you pervert,” and his hand tightens on David’s shoulder for a minute, and David is just confused and relieved and hot all over again, and it’s weird.

He goes home stinking of sweat and cigarettes and his dad yells at him. He flops down on his bed and wonders why Cook is so important to him.

\--

David doesn’t know who to talk to, so he calls Cook. It’s late, and Cook probably has classes in the morning, and they haven’t really talked in four or five months, so it should be awkward, but David has _no one_ else to talk to.

“I think I’m gay,” he says, and the icy cold fear pours down his back like water. Cook doesn’t hang up and the fear turns to relief.

\--

David doesn’t date. He’s never really had the urge to, even though he has, um, had a few crushes, and it’s just easier not to date. Because of the whole liking other guys thing, it’s just awkward. He doesn’t mind not dating. Or, he didn’t use to mind.

He’s been restless, lately. It would have blamed it on senioritis, but even here, at his graduation party he feels weird and anxious and _yearning_. The thing is, he totally knows why he’s anxious. Cook will be here, and David hasn’t seen him in a long time, and even though they talk on the phone sometimes, and chat online, it’s just not the same. And David isn’t sure how different he’ll be, or maybe Cook will find that _David_ has changed, and are they still friends? Or will Cook spend the whole time with Andrew, because, well, that would make more sense.

“Hey Archuleta,” Cook says from behind him, and David turns in surprise, almost tripping in his haste. “Easy there,” the other man laughs, reaching out to steady him. David lets him, looking up hesitantly, afraid of whatever change he might find.

Cook’s hair is shorter, he realizes. And he’s got some sort of, um, facial hair… thing. It looks – not bad. He’s smiling though, and David automatically smiles back, and suddenly all the good feelings he associates with Cook come bounding back and he feels a rush of affection tinged with, with something else, something a little harder and more dangerous. Oh. He _liked_ Cook. Like, like _that_.

“Uh oh,” he says stupidly, and then bites the inside of his cheek hard as a punishment. Cook raises an eyebrow. “I mean, um, hi! Cook!” He tries to act normal, smile normally, do normal things with his hands and his face and his body. He’s not sure it works.

“It’s good to see you Arch,” Cook says, and draws him in for a hug. David tries not to lean into it, but it’s hard. He breathes in, and accepts it.

\--

Four weeks later Cook kisses him.

“I couldn’t wait any more,” he admits, after David um, kisses him back first. (It was warm and dry and sweet, and David felt himself go hot just from that, so he opened his mouth to breathe, and Cook cradled his jaw and tilted his head back and kissed him even more thoroughly. David felt like his body was on fire.) “I feel like I’ve been waiting my whole life to do that.”

David blinks in surprise. “You’ve liked me that long?” He asks, curling into the curve of Cook’s arm, which pulls him nearer automatically.

“I guess so,” Cook says, smiling. David hides his face, pressing his burning cheeks against Cook’s chest and trying to calm his rapid heart beat.

“I’ve always felt like I was missing something,” David says after a while, and it’s weird to do this, to talk about their feelings like this. But it’s nice, too, he guesses. “I just didn’t know what.”

Cook leans down and presses their mouths together again, his hand warm and familiar and soothing on David’s neck, his fingers stroking the smooth skin fondly.

“I was right here,” he says against David’s cheek, his voice soft and murmuring, “the whole time, I was right here. You just had to look.”

David opens his eyes, looks, and smiles.


End file.
